Sleight of Hand: A Gripping Dana Cutler Crime Thriller – Private Investigator vs. Deadly Lawyer (Dana Cutler Series, 4) - Hardcover

Margolin, Phillip

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062069918 ISBN 13: 9780062069917

Publisher: Harper, 2013

Synopsis

Private investigator Dana Cutler must take down a cunning psychopath before he can pull off the perfect crime, in Sleight of Hand, a novel of suspense from Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author of Capitol Murder and Supreme Justice.

Charles Benedict – charismatic criminal defense lawyer, amateur illusionist, and professional hit man – has performed his greatest sleight of hand yet: framing a millionaire for the murder of his much younger wife.

When Horace Blair married Carrie, the prosecutor in his DUI trial, he made her sign a prenuptial agreement guaranteeing her twenty million dollars if she remained faithful for the first ten years of marriage. Just one week before their tenth anniversary, Carrie disappears, and Horace is charged with her murder. Desperate to clear his name, the millionaire hires D.C.’s most ruthless defense lawyer – Charles Benedict.

P.I. Dana Cutler is in the Pacific Northwest on the trail of a stolen relic dating from the Ottoman Empire. Hitting a dead end sends her back to Virginia perplexed and disappointed – and straight into the case of Horace and Carrie Blair.

Now Dana must conjure a few tricks of her own to expose Benedict’s plot, before he can work his deadly magic on her...

About this title

About the Author

Phillip Margolin has written nineteen novels, many of them New York Times bestsellers, including his latest novels Woman with a Gun, Worthy Brown’s Daughter, Sleight of Hand, and the Washington trilogy. Each displays a unique, compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior, which comes from his long background as a criminal defense attorney who has handled thirty murder cases. Winner of the Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

From the Back Cover

Tenacious investigator Dana Cutler must take down a charismatic and diabolical lawyer before he can pull off the perfect crime in this powerhouse thriller from New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin.

Charles Benedict—magnetic criminal defense lawyer, amateur illusionist, and professional hit man—and private investigator Dana Cutler are on a collision course set in motion by Benedict's greatest sleight of hand yet: framing a millionaire for the murder of his much younger wife.

Ten years ago, Horace Blair fell in love with Carrie, the prosecutor during his DUI trial. After a torrid courtship, he persuaded her to marry him and to sign a prenuptial agreement guaranteeing her twenty million dollars if she remained faithful during the first ten years of their marriage. The week before their tenth anniversary, Carrie disappears, and Horace is charged with her murder. Desperate to clear his name, the millionaire hires one of D.C.'s most brilliant and ruthless defense attorneys—Charles Benedict.

Meanwhile, private investigator Dana Cutler is in the Pacific Northwest on the trail of a stolen relic, a gold scepter dating back to the Ottoman Empire. Hitting a dead end, she returns to Virginia, perplexed and disappointed—and straight into the twisting case of Horace and Carrie Blair.

It's the perfect crime, unless Dana Cutler can conjure a few tricks of her own to take down a cunning psychopath and expose his diabolical plot—before he can work his deadly magic on her.

Reviews

After criminal defense attorney Charles Benedict accidentally kills a woman in the heat of the moment (while attempting to blackmail her to the tune of $250,000), he frames the woman’s husband for the murder. The victim, Carrie Blair, was a prosecutor, and her husband, Horace, is a very wealthy man, meaning that Benedict still sees a way to make some cash out of the deal. Meanwhile, private investigator Dana Cutler—Margolin fans will remember her from several novels, including Capitol Murder (2012)—is trying to track down a missing ancient relic, and her investigation leads her to the Blair murder case. There’s a really good story here—clever defense lawyer frames man for murder, then takes the man on as his client—but it’s obscured by a lot of unnecessary material. The connection between Cutler’s missing relic and the Blair case, for example, is unnecessarily complicated and massively distracting. It’s as if Margolin had two stories, Benedict’s and Cutler’s, and rather than writing a novel about each, he decided to mash them together. As with so many of his recent novels, this one’s for devoted fans only. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062069918
• ISBN 13: 9780062069917
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320